Gingrich, Wasserman Schultz split over the Obama economic record

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s remarks on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning on the “Obama recovery” stood on sharp contrast to those made by Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on CNN’s “State of the Union”.

The former presidential candidate said the reduced unemployment numbers are a trick of fancy accounting because many Americans either have given up looking for a job or they just cannot find one, and the unemployment numbers do not include individuals who have stopped receiving unemployment benefits but have not returned to work.

“Can you afford four more years of this economy? and can you afford four more years of this kind of debt? … The unemployment rate under Romney came down. The fact that he was able to balance the budget as he had to under the law of Massachusetts, and the fact is he does know a great deal more about job creation than Barack Obama.”

Wasserman Schultz, by contrast, spun the Obama economic record as a success.

“President Obama has acknowledged that while we’ve made progress, he is not satisfied with the progress that we’ve made. We need to continue to push hard,” Wasserman Shultz said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

“We need to continue to push hard,” Wasserman Shultz said. “We’ve got a long way to go. but we have made progress by making investments in the economy, by striking a balance and making sure that through tax breaks for small businesses and the middle class, 18 different tax breaks for small businesses, [and] an opportunity that we’ve taken advantage of to cut taxes for the middle class…”